30 Things in 30 Days... What I Want my Kids to Know About Moi

*cough cough* Clearing cobwebs. Oh hello there! My goodness, it's been a little while. In fact, my daughter wasn't even one the last time I blogged. Yeah, she's going to be three this year. And oh yeah, I'm expecting another baby in August. Not that I've been busy or anything.

I just came across this fantastic blog while taking a little break from life on Pinterest (gah, that website is addicting). Basically the blogger found a list of 30 things to share with your spouse, but she changed it to apply to 30 things your children should know. Then, she broke it down to 30 things in 30 days. What!? That's just writing one thing a day! I can totally do that.

Thanks Jenn over at Baby Making Machine! You're kind of a big deal, eh? :) So here's the list:

THE LIST:

1. List 20 random facts about yourself.
2. Describe 3 legitimate fears you have and explain how they became fears.
3. Describe your relationship with your spouse.
4. List 10 things you would tell your 16 year-old self, if you could.
5. What are the 5 things that make you most happy right now?
6. If you could have three wishes, what would you wish for?
7. What is your dream job, and why?
8. What are 5 passions you have?
9. List 10 people who have influenced you and describe how.
10. Describe your most embarrassing moment.
11. Describe 10 pet peeves you have.
12. Describe a typical day in your current life.
13. What’s the hardest part of growing up?
14. Describe 5 and weaknesses strengths you have.
15. Describe when you knew your spouse was the one or how I fell in love.
16. What are your 5 greatest accomplishments?
17. What is the thing you most wish you were great at?
18. What do you think your spouse loves most about you?
19. How did you feel the moment you became a parent?
20. Describe 3 significant memories from your childhood.
21. Describe your relationship with your parents.
22. Where do you see yourself in 5 years? 10 years? 15 years?
23. What’s your favorite holiday and why?
24. What’s your favorite and least favorite thing about parenthood?
25. If you could have dinner with anyone in history, who would it be and what would you eat?
26. What popular notion do you think the world has most wrong?
27. What is your favorite part of your body and why?
28. What’s your favorite quality in your spouse?
29. What are your hopes and dreams for your prosperity?
30. List 10 things you would hope to be remembered for.

Witchy Wreath

Witchy Yarn Wreath (iPhone pic, sorry!)

I found an amazing blog a few weeks ago, Eighteen25 (thanks Ally and Kari!) and came across a spooky bat yarn wreath. I was ready to make it when I realized there was no way I was going to cut out a dozen tiny bats since I don't have a Cricut (yet!). I decided I needed to come up with an alternate wreath so last minute I saw some plastic, glittery witch hats and hot glued them on to my yarn wrapped wreath.

I like shortcuts.

It was recommended that the white craft styrofoam wreath be painted the color of your yarn, but I didn't have gray paint first of all, and it was 9:30 PM when I decided to make this project. So, I just wrapped, and wrapped (and wrapped some more) until the wreath was completely covered in gray yarn. It probably took up half of that new court show with that really good actress. You know which one I'm talking about? Kathy Bates? I don't know. I digress.

After I wrapped the yarn up, I secured the two loose ends with a dot of glue from my glue gun. Then I arranged the little witch hats and stuck them on with glue. I took about a 24 inch long piece of glittery purple ribbon and tied it around the wreath so it could hang from the hook on my front door.

If I had patience, I would have found cuter accessories, but I was so anxious to do this project, that I just went with what I had. I would love to do a wreath with spiders and ghosts, but this worked! Also, I love that it's not the traditional orange and black, but purple and gray instead.

Hope you like it!

Nine Months Holy Cow!

 Our sweet baby girl is not much of a baby any more. She's three quarters of the way to being a toddler! Have I mentioned how fast time flies? Every day Addie is more and more fun to be around. We go to swim lessons every Monday morning where Coach Eric has taught Addie how to swim underwater for seven whole seconds! On Tuesdays or Wednesdays we go to storytime at the public library where we sing songs, read books, and play with other babies. We even ran into our former AP, Cassie there one week! Addie loves her LeapFrog Learn & Groove Musical Table because it does so many different things and she gets to feel like a big girl as she stands around it. She's not yet crawling (not that I mind!) but she still gets where she wants to go by scooting on her bottom or pseudo-crawling backward or rolling. It's fun going into her room every morning to see what crazy position she wound up in during the night. She's like her mama and prefers sleeping on her stomach whenever she gets the chance. I still put her to sleep on her back but she flips back and forth through the night. She's eating everything in sight and I'm so glad we did Baby Led Solids (or Baby Led Weaning). I'm not the typical parent; Addie has actually never had a jar of babyfood and has only eaten two pureed foods. She prefers to feed herself (stubborn like her mom) so we give her appropriate sized cooked foods that she can pick up. Her current favorite food is ground beef or roast... THAT she gets from her daddy. She also just learned how to drink from a straw so of course I ran out to Target the next day to get her a straw sippy. We'll be celebrating her birthday before we know it!

"No thanks Mom, I'd rather read." She grabbed this book off the nightstand.

Smile!

Such a happy munchkin!

::smack:: "So, are we almost done here?"

Daddy came in the room.

"I love my bunny SOOO much!!"

"And this is what I think of my bow." She started ripping her bows off at exactly nine months. Oh well, at least I got eight easy months of accessorizing her!

"No more pictures!"

Nursery Wall Letters

I'm the queen of procrastination. No wait, I prefer alliteration, so I'm the princess of procrastination. I found out I was pregnant in Feb 2009. I decided then and there I wanted my baby to have his/her name spelled out in wooden wall letters that matched the decor of the nursery. I hemmed and hawed and even considered spending almost $100 just so somebody could do it for me. On Dec 1, 2010 (a full month after Addison was born...) Zac and I went to Hobby Lobby and bought all seven letters, stencils and acrylic paint so I could begin my masterpiece!


A few months later, I decided I had no intention of painting, so what else could I do? Oooh, how about gluing scrapbook paper onto the letters!? I was brilliant! Surely, nobody else in the world has ever had my idea, right?! Then, I learned there's a technique for my lightbulb moment and it's called decoupage or modge podge. Oooh... ::cue deflated ego here::


My poor daughter has had to look at a naked wall above her crib for almost two months now (she co-slept for her first seven months). I also had a looming deadline of summer coming to an end in two weeks, which is another post entirely. Sigh. It was time I did something.


Materials needed: Alphabet wall letters (mine were wooden), foam brush, modge podge, pencil, scissors/exact-o knife, newspaper, glue gun, staple gun, ribbon

Choose scrapbook paper in coordinating colors. Addie's nursery is green and pink, but since the walls are green I chose pink for the letters.

Turn the scrapbook paper upside down and trace the wooden letters. Don't do what I did and trace them backwards. I guess I should add a giant pink eraser in my list of materials...

Have your letters ready to go!

My materials ready to go. See that blue and yellow thing? I thought that was a straight edge only to find out it's just a fancy pencil. Oops.

Once again, pay attention and don't modge podge the BACK of the wall letter. Jill and Ramona were really getting into it on TV and I got slightly distracted.

After modge podging your letter, put a layer of MP on the back of your scrapbook paper. Line them up and put another layer of MP on top of the scrapbook paper.

Let dry. Notice a letter that's missing? Yep, D. It's lost. I have no idea what happened to it but I had to run to Hobby Lobby the next day and get a replacement D. I guess that's what happens when you sit on a project for nearly a year.

I measured "five planks" for the ribbons that will be attached to the back of the letters.

There are various ways to attach the ribbons to hang the letters. I chose to already make the bows and then attach the ends of the bows onto the letters using a glue gun and then adding a staple from the staple gun for added measure.

I wanted the letters spaced out over the crib so what better place to lay them out than IN the crib?

I pulled the crib out from the wall, and nailed the "I" in the center. I stepped back to make sure I liked the placement and then added letters on either side of the "I" until I was finished.

Dining Room Chair Reupholster

I've wanted to reupholster my dining room chairs since we got them. Zac's parents graciously gave us their beautiful dining room furniture for our new house and gave us their blessing to reupholster the chairs if we wanted to. I didn't mind the fabric, but I was up for a project! It just took over a year to actually make that happen. Last summer my partner in crime, Morgan and I went fabric browsing only to come away with nothing. Nada. Zilch.

Today I kidnapped my mom and took her to Hancock Fabrics, where they happened to be having a half off sale on almost everything! Score! I intended to buy a floral or paisley print in a muted blue, or gray but look what I ended up with: yellow and white chevron print. I fell in love with the fabric instantly and knew it would be perfect. When asked, "But what about your curtains?" I responded with, "I don't love the curtains and they were cheap. I LOVE this fabric and can replace curtains easily." Easy peasy.

So, here's my simple directions on my very first reupholstering project ever.

Turn your chair over and remove screws from each corner

Close up of screw

My only materials: 1.875 yards of fabric @$9.98/yd, staple gun, scissors, flat head to remove old staples, philips to remove screws

The reason I reupholstered: stains, cat hair, outdated fabric from 1986.

Before

Goose loved jumping through the seatless chairs!

I laid out each seat on the uncut fabric so I could ensure I had enough. It was also a way to make sure the chevron pattern was aligned how I wanted to the seat.

I cut squares for each seat and just pulled one seat over to me at a time to staple. Leave approximately 3 inches on each side of the seat.

Start by pulling the fabric taut and stapling in the middle. Then staple the opposite side. Continue stapling in the middle, making sure to pull fabric taut each time. The corners are a little trickier, but there are a few variations depending on if you want creases, pleats, or a seamless finish. I attempted a seamless finish but ended up with creases, so clearly, I'm no expert.

For the most part, the fabric is lined up the way I wanted it. Whew!

After

Two out of the six chairs

So, what do you think!?

Living Room

View from the entry hall. I like how the rug is still the focal point in the room. The couches are from Zac's bachelor days and still serve their function, but we hope to get a sectional at some point. It's hard to want to buy a brand new couch with a baby, a dog who submissively pees, and two cats that have more hair than a wooly mammoth.

The two paintings that you can't see because of the glare (oops) are the inspiration for every color choice I make in the room. We got them off from a guy that was selling them on Congress a few weeks before we closed on our house. It was fun watching him make our art from spray paint!

These windows are so naked. Now that the walls are painted, I think I want white, flowy curtains from IKEA. Before I painted, I wanted "fake" stationary curtains set on each side of the windows.

The TV is in a hugely awkward nook above the fireplace. That being said, it serves a purpose by being completely out of reach for kids and animals. The fireplace is a strange, porous stone. That's all I know!

Here's the view from the kitchen (please ignore the mess from breakfast!).

In this light, the paint looks very silver. In actuality, it's bluer than I had wanted, but I love that it photographs so gray. I fell in love with Restoration Hardware's Silver Sage and had it matched at Sherwin Williams.

That HUGE, empty wall will soon have a table or dresser of some kind in the middle. On the dresser might be a lamp and a few accessories and the rest of the wall will be covered in photos.

We have a lot more to do in the living room, but having a painted room is such a great feeling of accomplishment. I love sitting in here and looking around at all of the hard work I did! I'm so fortunate to have such wonderful people in my life -- Morgan, a fellow teacher who I met while subbing over two years ago, motivated me into getting paint and taught me everything. She gave me confidence to conquer those pesky projects that I keep stored in the back of my mind. Next on my list to do is reupholster the dining room chairs, put up curtains, hang my photos, and buy/refinish a dresser.

We have paint!

I finally picked paint! Let's backtrack a bit... when we moved into our house in, er, 2009 I had large aspirations in decorating. For serious. Go look at the posts back in 2009. You'll see. Anyway, almost two years later and there's only one finished room, the nursery. And to be quite honest, I still haven't hung two owl hooks or Addie's wooden letters yet so technically I guess that room isn't finished either. Crap. But back to now.

After perusing countless blogs and forums and knowing my current obsession with gray (grey, greigh?) I picked a paint color. Restoration Hardware's Silver Sage (yes, I jumped on that bandwagon. What, you didn't know there was a bandwagon? Well there is. I'm on it.) Refusing to pay RH price, I went with my lovely friend Liz to Sherwin Williams where they matched it in their Cashmere line, in flat. I hate sheen. It's ugly. It looks outdated. Don't get shiny walls. Just, don't.

Not uncommon for me, I went about painting backwards. I chose the color first before deciding which room to paint. I really wanted to paint the master bedroom gray but ultimately chose the living room since I spend most of my time in here and this is the room people see upon entering our house. Also, it's the one room I'm trying so hard to decorate.

My marvelous Martha Stewertesque friend Morgan is coming over on Thursday for a painting party! I'll try to take pictures whilst painting so we can see before/during/after shots. Squeee!!